Searsucker

Searsucker was another Austin restaurant who was to prepare a dish in one of the Grand Taste Tents at the 2016 Food & Wine Festival.  This restaurant located in the Warehouse District at 415 Colorado Street was opened in June 2013 by celebrity chef (Top Chef alum) Brian Malarkey.

And so the four of us headed here for dinner on Friday evening, April 23rd.  Once seated at the restaurant, the first thing I noticed was the decor…or more specifically, the unusual wall art.

Not particularly tasteful art for a restaurant, but I guess it was eye-catching.

Anyway, the Searsucker menu offerings are self-described as “New American Classic cuisine emphasizing approachable and unpretentious food that doesn’t take itself too seriously.”  Here was their menu as of April 2016…

But first we ordered cocktails…

Starting from top left, my sister’s choice was the Summertime Sadness (Blueberry vodka, lime, blackberries, and soda).  Then my daughter’s drink, the Caribbean Hammock (Banana rum, lime, sugar).  On the right is the Snake in the Grass (Cucumber gin, bruised mint, lime, soda), which was my niece’s cocktail.  As for me, nothing on their cocktail menu really appealed to me so I asked for the bartender to concoct something that was sweet, fruity and infused with banana rum.  The resulting cocktail ended up tasting mostly like pineapple juice with a hint of banana flavor.  It was pretty good, but nothing special.  The others really enjoyed their cocktail choices though.

Now on to the food, which started with the dish that was to be served at the Food & Wine Festival…

Braised beef cheek served with curried cauliflower puree and a mix of edamame, pickled carrots, and mint

As AF&WF ticketholders, this was complimentary for us.  It was a small but tasty bite.

We skipped the appetizers/shared plates, and just ordered entrees.  My sister ordered the…

Seasonal fish (Red snapper) with romesco sauce, lemon, basil and pistachio 
Another view…
My niece went with the…
Yellowfin with avocado, citrus, herb and prosciutto
And another view…
Both of them enjoyed their selections from the Ocean section of the menu.
My daughter and I shared an entree from the Ranch section…
Filet with crispy fingerling corn hash and chimichurri sauce
We requested that it be cooked to a medium temperature but it was definitely medium well.  It was good though, as luckily it was still pretty juicy and not overly dry.   We also shared a side of roasted garlic mashed potatoes (sorry no pic).  My daughter thought these needed salt, but I thought they were very good as is.
We also ordered this side for us all to share…
Duck fat fries with parmesan, prosciutto dust and chipotle
These were delicious!
Too full for dessert, so this completed our dinner.  Overall we gave Searsucker a rating of 4 1/2, deducting 1/2 for the overcooked steak and the weird wall art, lol.  But even so, our rating was still better than the 4 stars given to Searsucker by Trip Advisor reviewers (ranked #201) and only 3 1/2 stars from Yelp and #493 ranking.